diff --git a/validator/src/main/java/org/mustangproject/validator/PDFValidator.java b/validator/src/main/java/org/mustangproject/validator/PDFValidator.java
index d1ba1afc..632a535f 100644
--- a/validator/src/main/java/org/mustangproject/validator/PDFValidator.java
+++ b/validator/src/main/java/org/mustangproject/validator/PDFValidator.java
@@ -150,7 +150,14 @@ public class PDFValidator extends Validator {
 
 				final DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();
 				final InputSource is = new InputSource(new StringReader(xmp));
-				docXMP = builder.parse(is);
+				try {
+					docXMP = builder.parse(is);					
+				} catch (Exception e) {
+					context.addResultItem(
+						new ValidationResultItem(ESeverity.error, "XMP Metadata: Could not parse XMP metadata")
+							.setSection(10).setPart(EPart.pdf));
+					throw e;
+				}
 
 				final XPathFactory xpathFactory = XPathFactory.newInstance();
 
diff --git a/validator/src/test/java/org/mustangproject/validator/PDFValidatorTest.java b/validator/src/test/java/org/mustangproject/validator/PDFValidatorTest.java
index 7fe508b7..cf7a345e 100644
--- a/validator/src/test/java/org/mustangproject/validator/PDFValidatorTest.java
+++ b/validator/src/test/java/org/mustangproject/validator/PDFValidatorTest.java
@@ -169,6 +169,16 @@ public class PDFValidatorTest extends ResourceCase {
 
 			assertEquals(false, actual.contains("<error"));// issue 18: "ConformanceLevel not found" should not be
 															// reported since it's actually there
+
+			contents = getResourceAsByteArray("invalidXMP-ParseError.pdf");
+
+			pv.setFilenameAndContents("invalidXMP-ParseError.pdf", contents);
+			vc.clear();
+			pv.validate();
+			actual = pv.getXMLResult();
+			
+			assertEquals(true, actual
+					.contains("<error type=\"10\">XMP Metadata: Could not parse XMP metadata</error>"));
 		} catch (final IrrecoverableValidationError e) {
 			// ignore, will be in XML output anyway
 		}
diff --git a/validator/src/test/resources/invalidXMP-ParseError.pdf b/validator/src/test/resources/invalidXMP-ParseError.pdf
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..838b1a8a
Binary files /dev/null and b/validator/src/test/resources/invalidXMP-ParseError.pdf differ